Frontline of the war on cybercrime | 60 Minutes Australia
Summary
TLDRCybercrime has impacted over half of Australia's population, costing the country $30 billion annually. Every six minutes, a new victim is reported. Despite efforts to combat it, online crime is growing, with individuals like Sarah Luke falling prey, facing legal battles after hackers used her data to commit fraud. Australia's government is ramping up efforts with top cyber agents like Rachel Noble, who combats hackers on the dark web. As the nation confronts threats to critical infrastructure, the call for better security and vigilance becomes urgent.
Takeaways
- ⚠️ More than half of Australia's population has been impacted by cybercrime, costing the country at least $30 billion a year.
- ⏱️ Every six minutes, someone in Australia becomes a victim of an online attack.
- 👩🦰 Sarah Luke, a mother of four, had her identity stolen after the Medibank hack, leading to fraudulent activity and lawsuits against her in the U.S.
- 🌍 The Australian Signals Directorate fights cybercrime on a global scale, targeting both individual criminals and state actors like China, Russia, and Iran.
- 🕵️♀️ Rachel Noble, head of the Australian Signals Directorate, focuses on hacking hackers and disrupting cybercriminal networks.
- 🚨 Major cyber attacks have targeted critical Australian infrastructure, including a recent attack on DP World, affecting 40% of Australia's maritime freight.
- 🛡️ The government is working to protect critical infrastructure and national defense systems, especially with the new nuclear submarine deal under AUKUS.
- 🤖 Criminals on the dark web sell stolen data and malicious code, with cybercrime forums rapidly re-emerging despite crackdowns.
- 💻 The Australian federal police and international partners are working together to disrupt cybercrime, though bringing hackers to justice remains a challenge.
- 🔐 Australians need to adopt better cybersecurity practices, such as using unique passwords and two-factor authentication, to mitigate risks.
Q & A
What is the current state of cybercrime in Australia according to the script?
-More than half of Australia's population has been impacted by cybercrime, costing the country at least $30 billion annually. A new cybercrime report is made every 6 minutes.
What happened to Sarah Luke, and why is her case significant?
-Sarah Luke's data was breached in the Medibank hack, and her PayPal account was used by Russian hackers to sell counterfeit goods. She is now a defendant in two U.S. lawsuits, facing $18 million in damages, despite being a victim of hacking.
What role does the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) play in cyber defense?
-The Australian Signals Directorate, led by Rachel Noble, is responsible for disrupting and destroying cybercriminal networks. They work undercover to prevent criminals from hacking Australian systems and selling malicious software and stolen data on the dark web.
How do cybercriminals operate on the dark web, according to the ASD?
-Cybercriminals use the dark web to sell access to hacked accounts, malicious code, and large data sets from breaches. This information can be used by other criminals to target individuals and organizations.
What are the national security implications of cyberattacks in Australia?
-Cyberattacks pose a significant threat to Australia's critical infrastructure, such as defense systems, maritime trade routes, and national security systems. These attacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated.
Which countries are identified as state actors posing cyber threats to Australia?
-Countries like China, Russia, and Iran have been identified as state actors either directly conducting cyberattacks or turning a blind eye to cybercriminal gangs operating within their borders.
What is the concern regarding Australia's nuclear submarines and cyberattacks?
-Australia's $300 billion nuclear submarine deal is at risk from cyberattacks. If these submarines are hacked, their stealth capabilities could be compromised, rendering them ineffective for defense purposes.
How do cybercriminals continue to evade law enforcement efforts?
-Despite shutting down some cybercrime forums, new criminals quickly take their place. Cybercrime is an ever-evolving issue that requires international cooperation to effectively disrupt these networks.
What steps can individuals and businesses take to protect themselves from cybercrime?
-Individuals should stop using the same password across multiple sites and enable two-factor authentication. Businesses and government organizations must also improve their cybersecurity measures to reduce the risk of attacks.
What is the Australian government doing to address the growing cybercrime problem?
-The government has invested in cyber defense, including the establishment of a dedicated cyber security minister. It also collaborates with international partners to track and prosecute cybercriminals, though challenges remain due to the global nature of cybercrime.
Outlines
😨 Australia's Alarming Cyber Crime Landscape
Cybercrime is escalating in Australia, with over half of the population affected and an annual cost of at least $30 billion. Every 6 minutes, a new cyber attack is reported. The battle against cybercrime may seem unwinnable, but the fight is ongoing. Sarah Luke, a resident of Byron Bay, found herself caught up in this crisis after her personal data was hacked during the Medibank breach. Her PayPal account was used by Russian hackers to trade counterfeit goods, leading to her being sued for $18 million in the U.S. This story underscores how ordinary Australians can be severely impacted by cybercrime.
🔐 Dark Web Dealings and National Security Threats
The dark web is a marketplace for cybercriminals, who sell access to personal accounts and malicious software. Rachel Noble, head of the Australian Signals Directorate, reveals the invisible yet dangerous battle between cybersecurity forces and online criminals. With critical national infrastructure constantly under attack, cyber security has become a daily concern. Recent breaches, like the one affecting DP World, a major port operator, highlight the urgency of the threat. The cybercrime battle is no longer just about stolen data but about defending the nation’s core functions and security systems.
🌐 The Global Cyber Warfare Threat
Australia faces not only criminal hackers but also state actors like China, Russia, and Iran, who are either directly involved in cybercrime or turning a blind eye to it. The risk of major cyber incidents, like attacks on defense infrastructure or crucial industries, is ever-present. The government is increasingly concerned about the implications of these breaches, especially as tensions grow in the Indo-Pacific region, potentially leading to devastating consequences for Australia's national security.
⚖️ The Ongoing Fight Against Cybercriminals
Australia's law enforcement agencies, alongside international partners, are continuously engaged in tracking and disrupting cybercrime. However, despite shutting down online criminal forums, new ones quickly emerge. Federal Police and cybersecurity teams are using advanced technologies and international cooperation to battle this ever-growing threat. Scott Lee, the Assistant Commissioner of Cybercrime, stresses that while progress is being made, it is a relentless fight that requires vigilance and advanced strategies to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated criminals.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Cybercrime
💡Data Breach
💡Dark Web
💡Cyber Offensive
💡Critical Infrastructure
💡State Actors
💡Two-Factor Authentication
💡Medibank Hack
💡Identity Theft
💡Cybersecurity Strategy
Highlights
More than half of Australia's population has been impacted by cybercrime, costing the country at least $30 billion a year.
Every 6 minutes, there is a new report of someone becoming a victim of an online attack in Australia.
Sarah Luke, an Australian resident, was one of 10 million people affected by the Medibank data breach and soon after became the defendant in two US lawsuits for selling counterfeit goods.
Sarah suspects Russian hackers used her PayPal account to sell counterfeit NBA and Adidas merchandise without her knowledge.
Cyber criminals frequently sell stolen data sets on the dark web, which are then used by other criminals to target victims.
The Australian Signals Directorate actively engages in undercover operations on the dark web, hacking hackers and disrupting criminal networks.
Major breaches targeting critical infrastructure like DP World, a key player in Australia's maritime trade, pose significant national security threats.
Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure are frequent, with state actors such as Russia, China, and Iran being identified as major threats.
Australia signed the largest defense deal in its history to build nuclear submarines to protect the nation from both physical and cyber threats.
Stealth is a key feature of submarine capability, and a cyberattack compromising submarine stealth could nullify their effectiveness.
Cybersecurity Minister Clare O'Neil highlights the increasing interest of state actors in hacking Australia's defense systems.
Despite police efforts, cybercriminal forums continue to grow, with new criminals emerging as soon as others are shut down.
The Australian Federal Police, in collaboration with international partners, regularly act on intelligence from the Australian Signals Directorate to combat cybercrime.
Sarah Luke’s PayPal account was hacked with 250 transactions made in just two days, demonstrating the speed and scale of such attacks.
Clare O'Neil stresses the importance of basic cyber hygiene practices, such as using two-factor authentication and unique passwords, to reduce the risk of becoming a victim.
Transcripts
the facts are frightening more than half
the population of Australia has now been
impacted by cyber crime its cost to the
country is at least $30 billion a year
and despite all the warnings every 6
minutes there's a new report of someone
becoming a victim of an online attack
now you mightn't like to hear this but
the war against cyber criminals can't be
won that doesn't mean we're surrendering
though far from
it when Sarah Luke moved to Byron Bay
she thought she'd be living a peaceful
stressfree life from this secluded Safe
Haven she never imagined she could be
accused of doing terrible things on the
other side of the
world I felt extremely vulnerable I felt
violated it's been enormously
distressing actually unlucky doesn't
even begin to cover what happened to
Sarah last
October she was one of 10 million
Australians whose data was breached in
the medy bank hack just a few weeks
later Sarah suspects that information
was used to hack her PayPal account my
understanding is that they were Russian
hackers they were using my account under
my name to trade unauthorized
merchandise sporting merchandise so
Adidas and national basketball
Association merchandise things like
that what they were doing was using her
account to sell counterfeit goods and
when those big Brands found out Sarah
was in their sight and overnight this
Laur abiding mother of four went from a
hacking victim to a defendant in two US
lawsuits up for $18 million in Damages
what were you accused of trading illegal
merchandise um and on charges of cyber
squatting trademark infringement willful
counterfeiting IP
infringement as extraordinary as it
sounds Sarah's situation isn't unique
every 6 minutes an Australian reports
being hacked the attacks are coming hard
and fast from far and
wide tonight we take you inside
Australia's online offensive appreciate
that initial advice on a potential cyber
incident with rare access to the front
line of this dangerous battle for cyber
security we have to run hard at it the
enemy is invisible these criminals are
if nothing else they are adaptive a new
era of warfare is upon us the need to be
vigilant is profound and this is a
battle our government can't afford to
lose the sharpest me people in the
Australian government are there online
finding people who would try to harm
Australians Rachel Noble doesn't look
like one of the meanest people in the
government but she's certainly one of
the sharpest in fact she's one of our
nation's most cunning spies her job is
to hack the hackers and she's showing us
an undercover operation designed to
disrupt and Destroy cyber Criminal netor
works so this is the dark web it looks
very much like a any legitimate chat
Forum it sure does it it looks a lot
like a sort of um any online chat Forum
what you see here is criminals are
talking to each other about you know
their crimes and what they're planning
and also offering um to other criminals
uh ideas about what they're capable of
doing as a service as director general
of the Australian signals directorate
Rachel rarely allows cameras into her
workplace that's because what goes on
here is top
secret her team is our first line of
defense against an Ever growing threat
this is one of many criminals that are
out there this person this criminal
doesn't know that they're talking to
someone in the Australian signals
directorate for obvious reasons we can't
show you too much of what's on this
screen what are the most common
activities what are they getting up to
in there they're selling access they
will promise that they can get you uh
access to individual accounts they're
selling malicious codes that they've
written that might be able to steal your
login and password as you go into your
banking app for example and then of
course once they have your login and
password then uh your bank account is
open to them they'll also sell data set
so when we see big uh data breaches
sadly where your personal information
might have been stolen on the dark web
they will sell big data sets with
people's personal information which a
different criminal could then use to
Target you
personally that's one side of the battle
we face but the other side is the
terrifying implications for National
Security how often do you see major
breaches attempted attacks on our
critical infrastructure our national
security systems we see those pretty
much every day and it is a bad day
though when uh one of those hackers gets
through those
defenses a Cyber attack against Opus has
compromised the identities of more than
9 million Australians it's happened a
lot in the last year with Australians
hit by several major cyber incidents one
of the nation's biggest Port operators
remains crippled tonight due to a Cyber
attack earlier this month the target was
DP world the company responsible for 40%
of Australia's Maritime Freight and the
flow of international trade when you get
that phone call in this instance major
trade under threat hacked we must get
the adrenaline going look it does a
little bit I get these phone calls
regularly my only concern and focus is
protecting my neighbors my community and
citizens around in this country when
major incidents occur so tell me where
we're up to CLA O'Neal is in the hot
seat as the country's first cyber
security minister she has the enormous
responsibility of finding out who is
trying to harm us the DP world did go to
show it is very alarming that cyber
criminals can so successfully Target our
infrastructure our trade routes the DP
World incident was really serious and if
truth be told this is one that could
have affected the lives of almost
everyone who lives in our country How
concerned are you about malicious State
actors targeting our critical
infrastructure given our current
strategic environment State actors are a
really big part of the cyber crime
problem for our country uh we have in
some instances State actors who are
using parts of their government to
Target Australians in other instances
such as Russia where the government is
essentially turning a blind eye to
massive cyber gangs that are operating
in their country which state actors pose
the biggest threat to us countries like
China like Russia like Iran are those
that the Australian signals directorate
has publicly identified as those who are
part of the mix here and there's no
knowing how far they're prepared to go
as you'll see our most closely guarded
National secrets are in the firing line
it's a threat which is present and
active as we speak and in that sense it
requires defense right
now Australia could soon be at war or so
we're constantly warned in fact the
government is so concerned in the past
year it signed the biggest ever defense
deal in our history to build nuclear
submarines to protect our land and
surrounding
Waters it's defense minister Richard
miles's job to know all about the front
line but he's now facing conflict online
as well have we seen attacks or
attempted attacks on our defense systems
we do see U an increasing interest from
other state actors in our critical
infrastructure and that obviously
includes defense so does that mean
Russia and China have attempted to hack
or or strike our critical infrastructure
well again I I'm reluctant to go there
in in in probably the way you would want
me to why is the government reluctant to
to call out those State actors well we
do from time to time but we do so on a
case-by casee basis and for you know a
range of reasons and and a lot of those
might be around the protection of our
own people and our own movements and
systems he might have want to say it but
the defense Minister's great fear is
that $300 billion worth of nuclear
submarines are at risk How concerned are
you that orcus could be targeted I think
that we are very Vigilant about
protecting something such as that to
give people an understanding what would
be the ramifications of that if there
were to be some sort of Cyber attack
strike on on orus firstly it's
intelligence in the sense that it's uh
other actors having complete visibility
of what you're doing what defines a
submarine capability is stealth if they
can be detected there is literally no
point to
them it's a scenario our smartest cyber
fighting Minds have spent years
preparing for Catherine manstead
director of cyber intelligence at Cyber
CX advises the government and the
private sector on how to avoid and
respond to hacking incidents the
government's constantly telling us we're
in the most difficult strategic
circumstances in decades I mean let's
talk hypotheticals China invades Taiwan
it's on and now we can see how a
government like that could access and
sabotage our critical infrastructure
that's a reasonable scenario to consider
it would be very surprising to me if a
lot of countries around the world
weren't thinking about what would it
look like if there was a conflict closer
to home and how might that play out in
cyberspace because there are a lot of
foreign governments not just China and
Russia that see cyberspace as their
playground and that will try and seek
influence to coerce uh democracies and
Western democracies like Australia using
Cyber attack taxs if that's where the
state of the relations deteriorates too
it's a frightening thought not just for
our Defense Force but our law
enforcement too the problem is there are
so many Crooks out there when one gets
caught another one comes along they're
shutting down some of the cyber crime
forums where they operate where they buy
and sell access to Australian
organizations for example but the
reality is for every shutdown that we
have seen to date almost immediately we
see more criminals jump up to take their
place so we need to do more of that
disruption but we need to do it at a
much Bolder scale and we have to do that
not just as Australians but working with
uh police forces overseas to make a real
dent it's almost impossible to keep up
isn't it look it's not impossible we've
got things on our side like highly
capable um Technologies if we focus and
put that effort into seeing this as what
it is the dominant crime type of the
21st century and we focus on it like we
focused on organized crime terrorism and
other major crime waves before I think
we can do this but it does require that
mindset shift at that stage we'll make a
decision on there's no better man for
the job than Australian federal police
assistant Commissioner of cyber Scott
Lee fresh from leading counterterrorism
operations his Target is now cyber
criminals I think there is a deception
among the Australian public but the bad
guys are winning the community may not
necessarily see the policing response
but I can assure the Australian public
that both ourselves and our
International partners are taking action
every day with intelligence provided by
the Australian signals directorate our
federal police hunt for the most serious
cyber criminals at home and
overseas it's one thing to find them but
quite another to catch them and as we've
seen in the case of last year's medy
Bank hack bringing them to justice is
another story alt together there are
instances where that just mighton be
possible given the jurisdictions that
these individuals are based in so we
undertak and share information where
even if it's not necessarily A
prosecution in Australia some of these
individuals might be arrested and
charged and prosecuted in a foreign
jurisdiction the reality is disrupting
Cy criminals doesn't stop them as Sarah
Luke knows all too well she spent the
past year battling to clear her name in
the US courts after hackers stole her
identity accessed her PayPal information
and used it to commit fraud how often
did you use your PayPal account hardly
ever actually so I've owned it for 8
years and I've used it twice a year for
8 years and then all all of a sudden in
2 days there were 250 transactions that
went through my account were you
surprised by the I guess the scale of it
and the speed of it as well yeah
absolutely the speed how they got into
my account and then the transactions are
hu like it's it's it's immediate and
there's so many of them it's the damage
is done before you even know about it
absolutely so by the time I got the
email from PayPal to flag that they'
changed the email address the the damage
this had already been done it was too
late too late
yeah Sarah's Hope is that Common Sense
will prevail and the case against her
will be
dismissed what's it like for you having
that hanging over your head and
constantly in the back of your mind it's
an
enormous point of Stress and
Anxiety it's it's unnerving I go to
sleep at night not
knowing if there's going to be a knock
on the door if there's going to be some
some heavy people there going to take me
away I don't know I I have no idea I
just don't even know what it looks like
and no one has been able to to explain
to me what that's going to look
like cyber security minister CLA O'Neal
concedes as we face this cyber Reckoning
the government can't manage it alone it
has to be a shared burden is this
something that we all just have to
accept now in this modern digital world
that at some point all Australians are
going to be targeted I don't think we
should accept that we're going to be a
nation of cyber crime victims absolutely
not and it's part of my job to make sure
that doesn't happen one thing I do want
Australians to understand and part of
our cyber strategy is making sure that
people know that if you do some simple
things you can vastly reduce the risk of
cyber crime you know we've all been
using the internet over many years um
you know living in a Dreamland using the
same password for all of our different
sites you know not putting on two Factor
authentication when we need to that's
got to end Australian Citizens need to
change but business and government need
to step up too hello I'm Amelia Adams
thanks for watching 60 Minutes Australia
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